Educational Offerings

Your practice likely owns hematology, chemistry, electrolyte, andendocrine analyzers. And more hospitals than ever run electrocardiograms and ultrasounds, use blood gas and coagulation analyzers, and test for proteinuria and infectious diseases like Giardia, Lyme disease, and ehrlichiosis. Yet are you using your in-house testing instruments to their potential?

Of course, in-clinic labs aren’t designed to replace reference labs; theyshould augment and complement outside services. For example, if you’re performing hematology in-clinic and you see abnormal cells on the blood films, you’d submit the blood film to the outside lab for a veterinary pathologist to review. Or if in-clinic thyroid testing revealed a low total T4, you’d submit a sample to your reference lab for a free T4 by equilibrium dialysis.

Yet on the day that you need to perform a CBC and a chemistry panelwith lipase to diagnosis acute canine pancreatitis, your in-house lab might save a patient’s life. Of course, not every case is clear-cut. And you and your team might not always access all the tools at your fingertips every day. But here are 10 reasons to keep the dust off your in-house testing tools.

Given the choice between coaxing a feisty stray from underneath a dumpster and explaining why clients should part with their hard-earned cash for Angel’s blood work, I have a pretty good idea that most of you would be diving for the cat treats. Believe me, I understand. I also know some tricks that could make those sometimes challenging conversations go more smoothly.

At Metzger Animal Hospital in State College, Pa., we hear the same questions over and over again when we talk about in-house diagnostics. We’ve been offering these tests for a while, so we’ve had time to come up with pretty good answers to clients’ funny, pointed, and often valid comments. Here’s a look at 10 of clients’ biggest concerns and the best responses.